United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of Maman S. Sidikou of Niger as his Special Representative for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Head of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO).

Mr. Sidikou succeeds Martin Kobler of Germany, to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for his important contribution and dedicated service for the past two years in supporting the implementation of the MONUSCO mandate.

Bringing vast experience to his new position, with more than 25 years in Niger’s domestic and foreign services, the United Nations and as a senior African Union official, Mr. Sidikou is currently the African Union Special Representative for Somalia and Head of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).

He has served in various senior capacities in his Government’s service since 1976, most recently as Ambassador to the United States (2011 to 2014). In 1999, he was Chief of Staff to the President of the Republic, holding ministerial rank, and between 1997 and 1999, Minister for Foreign Affairs and African Integration. He has also served as the Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister and Director for the National Television within the Ministry of Information.

Between 1999 and 2011, Mr. Sidikou worked for the World Bank in Washington, D.C., for the United Nations Children’s Fund in Nigeria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Jordan, as well as for Save the Children-UK in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Mr. Sidikou holds a PhD in education from Florida State University. He is married and has two children.

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In progress at UNHQ

Daily Noon Briefing

The Emergency Relief Coordinator today released $30 million from the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund to urgently scale up relief efforts in the Sahel, where an acute drought, combined with exceptionally high food prices and worsening insecurity, has escalated humanitarian needs.